


The Center of Attention

by YumeArashi



Series: The Hot Topic Arc [2]
Category: Matantei Loki Ragnarok | Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok
Genre: Dress Up, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Humor, M/M, predatory female
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:20:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeArashi/pseuds/YumeArashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sequel to "One Hot Topic". How will the other characters react to Heimdall's new look?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Center of Attention

**Author's Note:**

> As before, all characters are in their adult forms.

“Oh, Narukami-kun, you’re working here now?”  Loki nodded amiably to his friend over the counter of the stand.

“Yeah, the pay’s not bad and it’s nice to work indoors, even if it is a mall.”  The thunder god commented, and scooped out a vanilla cone without having to be asked.

“Thanks.”  The trickster god took the ice cream and surveyed his surroundings lazily.  “I don’t see why you object to malls.  They have their good points.”  He winked at a pair of nearby high-school girls, causing them to squeal excitedly.

Narugami rolled his eyes.  “Leave it to you to relate everything to sex.”

Loki shrugged, unabashed.  “Everything is related to sex, in one way or another.  It’s all in how you look at it.”

Narugami was saved from having to reply by a commotion among the nearby girls.  A third girl had come up and was tugging on the arm of one of the others, insisting the two of them accompany her to the food court to see ‘this drop-dead sexy guy.’

“But Kelly, there’s a really hot guy right here.”  The girl pointed, and Loki smirked and waved as the newcomer looked over at him.

“The other guy’s hotter.  C’mon!”  The girl pulled her protesting companions away, leaving a stunned Loki in their wake.

Narugami, meanwhile, was nearly laughing himself sick at the dumbfounded expression on his friend’s face.  “Oho, looks like you’ve just been upstaged!  Loki’s not the hottest guy around anymore, what a shame.  Bruised ego, much?”

The trickster god scowled horribly at the other deity, which only made him laugh all the harder.

“C’mon, let’s go down to the food court and check out your competition.”  The dark-haired god called to a co-worker that he’d be back in five and hung his apron on a hook, still chuckling.

“I don’t see what’s so funny.”

Narugami snickered at the other god’s sulky tone.  “Oh, come on, how often does anyone get to see you, of all people, suffering from raging jealousy?”

“I am not ragingly jealous!”

"Right, Loki, you're not jealous as all -- and Freya's still a virgin."

“Narukami-kun!”

“Admit it, you can’t stand seeing anyone’s attention on anyone but you, you egotistical bastard.”

“That is not true!”

“It is true, and it’s damn funny to see you on the other end of things, for a change.”

“...Drop dead, Narukami-kun.”

*****

It wasn’t difficult, on reaching the food court, to guess where the ‘competition’ was located.  A crowd of females, of a scale usually only occasioned by Loki at his more flirtatious, was gathered at one end of the open area.

Narugami snickered at his friend’s thunderous expression.  _Not jealous, indeed._   Loki was already storming his way through the crowd, and the other deity followed, wondering what the trickster god intended to do when he reached his rival.

However, whatever plans Loki may have had in mind, they were stopped cold by the sight of the figure in the center of the crowd.

“Heimdall?!”

The guardian smirked at his fellow gods, his amusement at their utter gaping astonishment countering any embarrassment he might have felt at being seen by them in his current state of dress.  “Loki, Narugami-kun.  Nice to see you, as always.”

Narugami stared at his half-brother, his brain starting to hurt at the sight before him.  Yes, it definitely was Heimdall, and he really was dressed in leather and mesh, with fingerless gloves and what looked suspiciously like a collar, but somehow the image just didn’t compute.  And he really hoped that wasn’t actually makeup on the other god’s face.  “Heimdall, do me a favor and don’t ever tell me why you’re dressed like that.”

The violet-haired god snickered, unable to resist the temptation to tease the thunder god just a bit.  “Why, Narugami-kun, don’t you like it?”

“Argh!”

Meanwhile, Loki’s brain was having an argument with itself.  One half was crying that this was Heimdall, for Frigg’s sake, and it was fundamentally wrong for him to be looking like that.  The other half was saying that even if it was Heimdall, he was fucking hot, and wasn’t that sexy lace-up fly just begging to be undone, preferably with someone’s teeth, and...

“Argh!”

Heimdall grinned and raised an eyebrow at the trickster god.  “Something wrong, Loki?”

Loki growled, wanting to wipe the smirk off of the other god’s face.  _Especially,_ commented one half of his brain, _if it involves kissing him breathless_ _in the process_. 

“Heimdall, I hate you.”

The watcher god grinned, but Loki was spared whatever reply he might have been formulating when a cheerful voice called out across the courtyard.

“Ah, Heimdall, is that you?  I saw purple hair and knew I must have found you!  I know we were going to go to the store together, but I ran into Freya-chan and we got to talking and...”

The Vanir’s voice trailed off as he finally made his way past the crowd and got a good look at his housemate.  He blinked, then blinked again.  Behind him, Freya’s eyes widened as she caught sight of the Goth-clad deity.

After a brief moment of puzzled silence, Freyr tentatively asked, “Heimdall?”

“Yes?”

“...When did you change clothes?”

Heimdall rolled his eyes.  “Back at the store, when I got the new outfit.”

“Oh.  Ok, I just wondered.  Anyhow, now we’re both here and we can go to the store!  I went myself, but then I realized that you have all the money and so I couldn’t buy anything.”

“Actually, about that...”  Freyr frowned, and Heimdall did his best to look innocent.  “I kind of spent it already.”

“You spent it?  Heimdall, how could you?”  The Vanir howled indignantly, while Loki and Narugami looked on with interest.

“Well, I really liked this outfit, and it was twenty percent off, and we don’t really need five hundred bars of soap, so...”

“How could you waste our money like that?”

“Oh, I don’t think it was a waste at all.”  The group turned as one to see Freya, having snapped out of her amazement at Heimdall’s new look, approaching the suddenly-pale guardian god with a distinctly predatory look on her face.  “I think it’s just perfect on him.”

That was when everything happened all at once.

Freyr turned to argue with Freya, and the debate spawned all the usual chaos of divine sibling rivalry.

Narugami yelped something about his brain being broken, and fled for the safety of his part-time job.

Loki promptly decided that it was unacceptable for Freya to be hitting on Heimdall when clearly, the only person with any right to be hitting on the watcher god was Loki himself.  Not that Heimdall was aware of this, of course.  But he would be, soon enough.

Seeing an opportunity to escape in the havoc the two Vanir were wreaking on the mall, Loki grabbed Heimdall by the wrist and they fled through an inconspicuous side door.

*****

The two gods paused in the lee of a brick wall, out of breath from running.

“I think that’s far enough away...for now, anyhow.”

“That’s good, because this outfit really, really wasn’t made for running.”

Loki chuckled and glanced over at his companion, only to feel the breath stop in his throat.  Heimdall was leaning back against the wall, eyes closed, lips slightly parted as he tried to catch his breath, his skin lightly sheened with sweat.  The sight hit the trickster god like a physical blow, and the corner of his mind that was not completely disabled commented that it was a good thing that they didn’t have to run any more, since trying to do so in his current state would be awkward, to say the least.

“Loki?”  Heimdall was looking at him quizzically, and Loki shook his head.  It wouldn’t do to scare Heimdall off by visibly lusting after his body.

“Sorry, just trying to get my wind back.”

“Mmm.”  Silence fell for a few minutes while the two gods regained normal respiration. 

“Where are we going, anyhow?”

“Back to my place.”  The guardian raised an eyebrow, causing his companion to elaborate.  “It’s the last place Freya will think to look for you.”

The darker-haired god let out a short, sharp laugh.  “That’s true enough.  I can’t believe she was after me!”  He shuddered, and Loki grimaced sympathetically.

“That’s not a good thing, I can tell you.  She’s genuine stalker material.  She didn’t even leave me alone when I was stuck in a child’s body!”  The trickster god made a face and Heimdall shook his head.

“That’s just wrong.  How did you deal with her?”

“Usually, I hid.  Or ran away.”  Heimdall snickered, and Loki looked indignant.  “And why is that so funny?  What do you think you’re doing right now?”

The watcher sobered.  “Point taken.  You’re used to dealing with her, what would you suggest?  Besides running and hiding, that is.  I’d like a more permanent solution.”

“Well, give me some time to think and I’ll see what I can...”  Loki’s sentence trailed to a halt as a flash of inspiration brought what might have been the best idea in his entire several-thousand-year existence.

Heimdall, noticing his companion’s brilliant grin, suddenly became extremely nervous.  “You know, forget I asked.  I’ll come up with something, I’m sure.”

“No, no, this is a great idea, trust me.”  For some reason, Heimdall felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end.  “Honestly, it’s really simple, even you’ll agree it makes sense.”

“Forgive me for being skeptical.”

“Really, it’s easy -- all we have to do is convince Freya that you’re taken.”

“...Taken.”  Loki nodded, still grinning.  “As in, already in a relationship.”  Loki nodded again, and Heimdall lifted a hand to his temples to counter a rapidly-developing headache.  “With whom, dare I ask?”

Loki did his best to look earnest and reasonable.  “Well, in this case I was thinking that perhaps I might be the best choice.”

“What!”

The trickster god continued quickly, anxious to make his point while his quarry was still stunned.  “There really aren’t too many options, you see.  She wouldn’t believe that you’d get involved with a human, Thor’s your half-brother, Freyr doesn’t have the attention span to go along with it, and Yamino’s too honest.  Plus, this would not only keep her from harassing you, but me as well.  I don’t enjoy being stalked by her myself, as you can well imagine.”  He put on a long-suffering expression and gave the watcher god his most pleading look.

“I can’t believe you think this is a good idea!  I can’t believe you even think it’s a valid idea!”

“It will work, I guarantee you.  Freya knows I don’t like to share.”

“I hate to think how she knows that.”

“Well, not that it’s usually an issue, but it’s come up in conversation.”

“Unbelievable.  Look, I’m not some plaything, to belong to this person or that.”

Loki bit down on an entirely inappropriate comment.  “Of course it’s not going to be that way, it just has to look that way to her.”

“And have all Asgard gossiping about me being your latest conquest?  No, thank you!”

“We wouldn’t be acting like that where all Asgard can see.  All we have to do is make sure Freya sees us acting cuddly once or twice in private, and she’ll get the message,” he lied smoothly.  “We’ll make sure no one else sees, and even if she talks, who’ll believe her?”

“I still can’t believe you’d even consider this.  There has to be a flaw in this logic somewhere.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a good idea.”

“Too late, I’m already worried.  And I’m less worried about the idea than about the execution of it.”

“I know you don’t like it, and I can’t say I really blame you for that, but would it be worse to get stage-kissed by me or actually pawed at by Freya?”

“I can’t believe I’m even in this situation.  I think I’ll go find the salesgirl that talked me into this outfit and arrange for something very unpleasant happen to her.”

Loki hid a grin at the defeat in the other god’s voice, knowing he’d won.  “Now, don’t vent your irritation on innocent humans.  It’s a charming outfit, and quite becoming on you, this was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  He gave the other god a reassuring smile.  “Come on, we’re almost back to my place.  I’ll have Yamino make us some nice hot tea and we can discuss our plans to keep Freya from stalking you.  All right?”

Heimdall sighed resignedly.  “Somehow, I just know I’m going to regret this...”

Loki grinned at him and replied with perfect honesty.  “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

 


End file.
